


Dice's Chaotic Dreamscape for Raising Families

by Fiobri



Series: Eternal Cycle [10]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Dimension Travel, Friendship, Gen, Guardian-Ward Relationship, Major Original Character(s), Mugiwara no Ichimi | Straw Hat Pirates As Family, Overpowered Straw Hat Pirates, Self-Insert, Unconventional Families
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:14:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23154631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fiobri/pseuds/Fiobri
Summary: This time they’re not even human. Or any other creature. Just four people in an empty space they can apparently shape to their whims. The space they reside in is connected to others too but they're not there yet. So the best they can do is to make them a world worth exploring.Just their luck that their world is actually a separate dimension connecting a certain group of future pirates together and they just about become everyone's parents.Cycle 103 692. Trick Cycle, One Piece.
Relationships: Brook & Laboon (One Piece), Brook (One Piece) & Original Character(s), Jinbei & Brook (One Piece), Jinbei (One Piece) & Original Character(s), Mugiwara Kaizoku | Strawhat Pirates & Original Character(s)
Series: Eternal Cycle [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1314257
Comments: 17
Kudos: 59





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This one I've got a long long plan for but don't think I'll ever get done. I might publish the plan if it comes to that and maybe write scenes from it. Or something. I'm up for suggestions for the whole of Eternal Cycles series. 
> 
> If you want to try writing a Cycle of your own you only have to ask. The first rule is that the Cycle makes all the rules.

Everything was nothing. Empty. Simply without anything. 

Except for them. They were one, yet separate. Four different beings. Four lives. Yet tied together with bonds that couldn’t be broken. Awareness came slowly. First thing they knew were each other. Intimately. Every thought was shared, every muddled emotion felt together, every shard of flickering memories seen as one. Echoes from the past, from the present. They started to understand it was dark. Everything was black as night, soundless and swirling without purpose. 

Time went by as they floated in nothingness, knowledge and thoughts coming easier and more separate. It felt… right. 

Trace was the first to come together as something resembling a human body. She silently opened her eyes to see herself glowing as three other lights were shaping themselves into her siblings, her selves. 

Her heart. Her soul. Her life. 

Memory fragments of thousands of other lives flittered through her head, too fast to make any sense of them. She still got the sense that they were in this together and that this wasn’t quite normal. Not  _ normal _ but not  _ bad _ either. She blinked once more and was instantly more awake as the others too came into awareness. 

There was a general sense of confusion from all of them as they looked around the blackness to which they were the only light. 

_ ‘Where are we? _ ’, one of them thought, probably Drew. 

A collective shrug. No one knew. All was just so… strange. Their echoing memories didn’t help a lot either. But they wouldn’t gain understanding by doing nothing so now was a good time to try things. They could float. They could also move around in the darkness. Then Frisk and Rina somehow created a blue cube. A thrill went through every single one of them. 

Could they… shape this place as they liked? 

Four maniacal grins. This just got interesting. 

xXXx

Birds were singing. Flowers were blooming. And on some giant mountain a blue scaled dragon breathed out a snowstorm. Jungles overflowed with strange not- _ really- _ alive-creatures and weather cycles worked exactly the way they should. That is to say, randomly. Seas were deep and one floated in the sky and changed color sometimes. Buildings were hanging from it like an unholy upside-down city. There were some other planets out there, up there. Another dimension five mental leaps to the left. Somewhere out there was the land of impossible shapes. A teleportation circle buzzed in a swirling mass of leaves, the center of a leaf tornado. Halos orbited around one of the suns and created kaleidoscopic effects that were mind numbingly  _ beautiful _ . 

They had created a world of oddities and normality. It was named Dreamscape. 

Right now the four figures were laying around a meadow and watched as rainbow colored clouds formed shapes. Some giant bugs and small animals flew overhead from time to time. 

They. Were. Super. Bored. 

How long had they even been there? They didn’t know. Time seemed to be something they couldn’t alter, even if time travel was somewhat possible. And they couldn't make life. Just shadows of it. Life but  _ not _ . They hadn’t bothered creating a night as they could just switch whenever. 

Also, they were connected to twelve other lives. None of which were even born yet. 

Time passed. They invented new things to do. A castle in the clouds that held  _ anything _ they could think of. Crystal caves with lego monsters and other stuff. Dungeons. Wind adventures. Number storms and amusement parks. A save point and commands of a gameworld that started from the place where sky ended and you could step through it to a void. Creating different worlds connected to theirs. Saner ones. They alternated between being four connected beings and one whole. Or then split in two. Trace and Rina formed Trana. Drew and Frisk were Frew. All of them together were Drenafrice or Dice for short. 

They liked Dice form. 

Which was why they were in that form when one bond slowly snapped into place and a baby’s cry penetrated the air. 

One of the twelve was there. They smiled warmly at the small life in their arms. A little digging found out he was asleep somewhere else. Another dimension. The Reality. Not their Dreamscape. The baby would go there when he woke up. Jokingly, they named the place Wakeworld. 

Right then. Dice was going to be his family in Dream. That’s what they decided right then and there. 

xXXx

Twenty-seven years passed in a blink. Brook grew up with Trana and Frew as his parents and Dice as his protector and teacher. He joined the military and soon became the leader of a battle convoy, his fencing skills beautiful and deadly. The boy who loved music and dancing fell in love with the dance of the blade and grew into a confident man with his family always with him, every step of the way. 

Trana and Frew were proud of him. It was soon after that that his life was shaken out of a comfortable routine and he was forced out of the military and into the life of a pirate. 

Luckily the Rumbar Pirates seem to be right where he wanted to be. They loved music. Loved it. Reveled in it and  _ oh _ Dice could  _ feel _ Brook's delight even when he was in the Wakeworld. Some years passed and the small crew wasn't so small anymore and had a baby whale tailing them. Brook named him Laboon. 

He turned thirty-six when his crew decided to sail into the Grand Line. Dice was a little worried, something niggling at their mind, but supported the decision anyway. 

The feeling turned out to be right after the Rumbar Pirates fell sick, forced to make half their crew leave. Then the rest got poisoned and in too-short a time Brook was the only one left. Even he died and only the devil fruit he ate kept him from drifting to afterlife. Dice tried their best to guide him back but only managed eleven months later.  _ Months _ later. His body had become a skeleton. 

What was worse, the ship seemed to be stuck inside the dark mists and he had no way to sail alone. 

It meant that, for the first time, Brook was left with only Dice and the Dreamscape for companions. 

"I miss Laboon…", he told them one day, fingering the tone dial in which he had recorded the last song his crew sang together. 

And they decided that Brook, who was basically their son, deserved to have a friend with him. It took months. They spread themselves thin, overpowering the barrier between Wakeworld and Dreamworld, searching through it and beyond for that small spark of familiarity. Of the one Brook left an impact on. 

Eventually they found Laboon, an asleep Laboon, and proceeded to bring him inside. That took a  _ lot _ of power. 

"Brook!", they called out, "Brook, I found him! He's here!" 

At their tired call Brook materialized in front of them, having been at the house before, and gasped at the whale swimming in a giant sea-lake, panicked and wailing. His eyes filled with tears, real skin and flesh in the Dreamscape, and he threw himself forward calling out his friend's name and getting the whale to calm down. Laboon chirped happily and jumped, triple the size that Brook had last seen him with. Dice smiled tiredly. 

They could only hold this connection for a while and wouldn't be able to do it daily, only around bi-weekly, but maybe it was enough. For now. 

xXXx

"Brook, c'mon! Hurry up!", Trana  _ chirped _ from ahead with Frew casually jumping across the jelly-rock landscape towards their home. 

Their home was the center of everything, a splash of normalcy in the abnormal world. Even if it was a giant oddly open castle next to a rushing river and a wild forest. And magical. Like Hogwarts. Kind of. It was something they remembered as being a positively happy place most of the time so it was modeled after the school. At least a little. Otherwise it was like Narnia's grand buildings. And space stations. And a giant tree. 

"I  _ am _ hurrying! I just don't know  _ why! _ ", Brook shouted from behind them, slashing at some threateningly reaching vines that fell neatly into a pile and formed a swarm of butterfly snakes. 

"There's going to be another baby  _ right now! _ ", Trana squealed, absently conjuring herself wings of light to make flying flips with and getting through the fire hoops that kept popping up. 

The part-time skeleton face-planted in shock, rolled out of wild raspberry bushes while spluttering, and looked up at his kind-of-adopted parents in wonder, "A  _ baby!? _ "

"You'll get to be a big brother, or an uncle", Frew shouted from the hill they could slide down right next to the castle, "We'll see once we get there!" 

Now it wasn't so hard to convince Brook to leave their little adventure behind and come home. Dreamscape was confusing and ever-changing and the small family loved it. Today, or tonight, Brook had wanted to reenact his childhood escapades with his parents and was confused when they dropped it in the middle of everything. They weren't known for that, usually indulging his whims. Especially when he was this high strung and feeling lonely. 

But now there was a  _ baby _ coming here. And  _ Brook _ would be introducing them to the Dreamscape. Be able to  _ share _ this amazing place with them completely. Not as mentions of some other plane of existence no one else had really believed. He wouldn't be the only person in the entire world who had 'imaginary worlds' for his whole life. A dream family. 

When he laid eyes on the blue skinned baby fishman gurgling in Trana's arms he felt his lonely monotonous existence crumble and shift into something brighter. 

When Frew held the little baby whale shark out to him he felt like he got another purpose to his life. 

When the baby grinned up at him with a mouth full of sharp teeth he felt like he would  _ melt _ with happiness. 

His parents laughed and told him not to spoil his new nephew  _ too _ much. 

xXXx

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There now exists a CHRONOLOGICAL CYCLE LIST with LINKS! It's the 3rd chapter in ETERNAL CYCLE: MINDSCAPE which is the 20th fic in this series.


	2. Chapter 2

It seemed that their new charge was an orphan. Dice really wanted to call him Jinbei and 'lo and behold he responded to it when he turned two even when they hadn't used the name ever before. This baby was calmer than Brook had been and liked play-wrestling with the polar bear cubs that 'lived' in the forest next to their home. Dice would really like to bring real animals to Dreamscape sometime. Not these shadows of one. 

They would also like being able to eat real food that actually tastes _ right _ . Not these… imitations of vegetables and flavors. 

Anyway. Jinbei grew fast and was a lovely kid with a penchant for biting things. He clearly loved them and Uncle Brook, telling them about his life and fishmen. Sometimes he was a little lonely because he  _ had _ a family but no one really understood that. He was an  _ orphan _ after all. And the prejudice against humans was a real struggle to live with since his  _ parents and Uncle _ were human or shaped like humans. 

He sometimes played with Fisher Tiger since he was just about the only one who didn't outright  _ avoid _ him. 

Then he started learning martial arts. He was prodigal at it. Dice started teaching him when he asked, further giving him mastery over his strong body. Brook taught him to meditate. A useful skill if one wanted to access Dreamscape while not asleep. They went on adventures into the ever changing chaos, inadvertently teaching the boy to have an open mind and be critical of the information he received.

Dice and Brook were over the moon when Jinbei started combining meditation techniques to his martial arts and taijutsu, telling him he just realized the key to having a fluid and controlled fighting style that would help him control his strength. No one in Wakeworld seemed to get where Jinbei was getting these 'new moves' for fishman karate. Jinbei intended to keep it that way since no one believed it anyway. 

This all went on for ten years before another bond snapped into place. 

xXXx

Jinbei was 10 years old when he got a little brother. He had a tuft of blue hair on his head and a cute button nose. 

"Be careful when you hold him. Babies are delicate, human babies even more so than fishmen", Trana instructed as she showed him how to support his head. 

The fishman's eyes were wide as he stared at the small life form in his arms. Brook was laughing and crying in joy as he got another member to his family. Frew's smile was wide as he chuckled at the baby's fascination with Jinbei's teeth. 

"What's his name?", the little fishman asked with hushed awe. 

His parents glanced at each other before speaking simultaneously, "Cutty Flam" 

Everyone stopped to stare incredulously. 

"What kind of parents does he have!?", Brook lamented, "Who does this to such an innocent little baby? We're not calling him  _ that _ , right? Right?" 

Jinbei nodded in solemn agreement and furrowed brows, "We  _ need _ a better name" 

Their parents were still smiling and staring at the new arrival with happiness. Trana was the one to answer. 

"Or course. He likes Franky more. So Franky it is" 

And it  _ did _ look like the baby liked Franky much better than whatever Cutty Flam was supposed to be. They welcomed him and this time Jinbei was the one to introduce his new little brother to the Dreamscape and their gigantic home. Brook and Dice helped, of course. 

Also, it seemed like Dice's powers and influence in Wakeworld grew the more people were connected to the Dreamscape. They could give Laboon access every day now and could most likely upkeep other connections too if trust and memories between individuals was high enough. They hoped that when more bonds were in their rightful places they'd be able to visit Wakeworld. There was much their family wanted to show them there and they had some  _ things _ to say to Jinbei's bullies. 

Brook did too but he was still stuck in the Florian Triangle. That, and Jinbei lived at the bottom of the ocean. So they could only be there for each other and the baby and wait. 

xXXx

Later something horrifying happened. 

It was day so Dice was the only one in Dream, with the occasional addition of a bored and meditating Brook. But this time the man wanted to drift in the oceans and compose new music. That, and practice his swordsmanship in his skeleton body, something he'd been neglecting lately. 

So. Dice was alone when they felt it happen. 

Franky in danger. Of dying. They immediately gathered their power as quickly as they could, feeling for the bond and  _ pushing _ themselves. It was draining. So so draining. But they  _ needed _ to know what was happening and make it right. 

The ocean. Franky's parents had tossed their  _ son _ into the ocean. And he was drowning. 

Dice immediately set to work,  _ willing _ him to stay afloat and get gulps of air in between struggling against the waves. They were afraid. Because they couldn't do that forever and they didn't know their surroundings. 

Just as they were about to do something drastic they felt an approaching presence. 

A man who was clearly trying to save the small child struggling in the waves. 

Dice helped, once again stretching and pulling at the fabrics of reality to make the rescue easier. The man reached Franky and started swimming towards a ship. It wasn't the one Franky had gotten tossed out of. 

He was crying. And Dice could only gently pet his hair once before the energy drain got to her and she fell into unconsciousness. At least Franky was safe. 

It didn't diminish Jinbei and Brook's horror when they dropped into Dream and saw their limp form, Franky bawling his eyes out on their chest. Nor their anger when Dice explained what happened when she regained consciousness a day later. 

But. Franky was now in much safer hands now if his happier disposition was anything to go by. So at least  _ something _ good came out of it. 

xXXx

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I updated. Surprise! And sorry to say I probably won't do so for a while now since I'm more focused on other fics in this same series. Particularly 'Granddaughter of a Phantom Thief' and 'Child of Time and Relative Dimensions'. More might come too since I literally have over 50 Cycle ideas and more are added all the time. 
> 
> I should mention now that there will most likely be plot inconsistencies and things that might not make sense in this particular Cycle. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you liked it and thanks for taking the time to read my rambling fantasies.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New baby joins the Dream.

Franky was six when another baby appeared. This time it was a girl. A black haired, blue eyed baby girl. For the fourth time everyone fell in love. Brook sang to her, Dice taught her, Jinbe showed her around and came up with games for her and Franky, and Franky just did what kids do best and played with her. 

She was a very fast learner, crawling within three months and sounding out words at four. They called her Robin, though little birdie was a common nickname. She was curious and looked at the world like it had all the answers. Maybe it did. Dreamscape was full of things ripped from other worlds and this world. There could very well be something that explained existence itself. At least in one reality. 

Franky loved building things. Boats, most of all. If it had cannons, even better. Drew took delight in helping him make the most outrageous things and hash out ideas to try in Wakeworld. Sometimes Brook or Jinbe commented on something and Franky rallied their parents into an inventing spree for the thing everyone wanted. It was hectic. Robin loved it, sitting by and watching the proceedings curiously. 

She grew up fast. Soon she turned two. And then something happened. Her mother left her behind. To her brother. 

Who was Not Nice. 

Franky wanted to go get her. Jinbe wanted to go show them why fishmen were feared. Brook wanted to whisk her away and keep her close to them all for the rest of eternity. 

Dice concluded there wasn't much they could actually do about the situation outside of Dream. Which was why Robin might not have had the best role models or parenting when awake but when dreaming? Oh, she could not have found a better place to be. 

Brook and Jinbe took to taking the youngest two of their family on long trips through the wonderous world their parents had created. At times it was chaos. Even more so than normally. Other times things were absurdly bland. Sometimes they got into messes because although Dice had created the place… it didn't mean it was always safe. 

Especially since it was created by Cyclists whose perception of safety was very very skewed when applied to people other than themselves. 

There were reasons the kids weren't allowed to explore alone without experienced backup. 

Luckily, Dreamscape was Dice's domain. If they ran into something they couldn't handle all they needed to do was call for them. They'd be there in an instant. Literally. 

Things got a bit weird once Robin found and ate a Devil Fruit. Nobody quite knew how she got it but now limbs and body parts could sprout around her body at the most unexpected of times. It was her first clear memory; the taste of a very very yucky fruit. 

Robin was four when she found Ohara's library. A month later she'd read five of the thickest books she could find, absorbed in them during the day and only talked about them at night. She loved to tell them what she'd learned and ask them question after question about the words or concepts she didn't understand. 

She was fascinated. Reading was her new love. 

Dice resolved to show her the library residing in Dream after she grew a little and got out of her emotionally abusive situation at Wake. She deserved a childhood. She was a child. 

Of course, that contributed to why her questioning came at inappropriate moments sometimes. 

"Jinbe-nii, what's the difference between asexual and sexual reproduction?" 

The fishman choked, missing his hit by a fraction and punching the 'training dummy' of an animal into a card mountain which then toppled over inelegantly. It buried both the curious child and the teen under itself. Both screamed, Jinbe shifting to cover Robin with his body. 

Dice came over and unearthed them after they tried and failed to get out themselves. If she also remade the card mountain into a castle, well. Nobody else in her family paid any mind as they tried to figure out what all little Robin knew of reproduction of all things. 

All the same, by the age of four and a half all of the archeologists in Ohara were fond of the little girl and her tentative questions to them. 

Once it seemed there was no retaliation coming, well. 

Robin was a chatterbox. 

And then Roji, her uncle, got physical. Dice immediately gave her advice and provided a calm presence at the back of her head. She told her to go to the Tree of Knowledge and tell the archeologists. The girl resisted. In her mind it was a rule; Wakeworld was unsafe and Dreamscape was safe. 

Dice gently provided her examples of when that was not the case. 

Then nudged her to Gram, the only woman in the group and very motherly or 'fun Aunt' type of person. It was a three-day long debacle but through Robin's memories of it and the slight injuries on her person… they had proof. Ohara was forced to give the archeologists, the Tree of Knowledge group as a whole, custody. A part of it might've been because they thought the archeologists could keep the 'demon kid' in check. 

That was how Robin became a ward of the Tree of Knowledge. 

Although the archeologists thought it a bit weird she followed their bedtime rules without fuss but was always forced to get away from a book to eat or play. The only answer they got once asked was 'I can play when I sleep'. Which, well, nobody quite understood. 

Not until years had passed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Been a while, nope not abandoned, just very slow going because I've got Way Too Many projects in both this series and outside of it. 
> 
> If you've got the time, I'd appreciate if you checked out my new drawing/comic based Ask Blog. It's about fictional characters popping up in the main character's life. 
> 
> (I'm asking cause I somehow managed to get my teacher to approve it as a school work and need to progress the plot so I have something to turn in...)
> 
> Link to the thing: [Welcome to My World](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28691868).


End file.
